Chapter Summaries

Jiang Ning tested his newly liquefied true essence and found that its power was immense but quickly depleted, then practiced the Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique under the noonday sun. After confirming his progress and learning that the Martial Academy admissions were four days away, he prepared to begin refining his marrow and headed toward the cliffs east of Dongling City.

• Jiang Ning discovered that his internal breath had transformed into true essence, which vastly increased his power but consumed a fifth of his reserve during testing.
• Jiang Ning absorbed the Great Sun's essence at noon and raised the Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique to Major Mastery 26/10000.
• Jiang Ning learned that the Martial Academy admissions would begin in four days and planned to take Jiang Yiming to enroll.
• Jiang Ning entered the lake to restore his condition, then prepared to use his third-level saber potential to refine his marrow and advance to Rank Four.
• Jiang Ning tested Dragon Abyss with a slash that carved a long mark in the courtyard, then decided to practice beyond his home and turned toward the eastern cliffs.

Jiang Ning refined his bone marrow on an unnamed peak, entering the fourth rank and discovering that he could alter how traits appeared on his panel. After Xiao Emei warned him that Yu Manyun planned to abduct one of his relatives, Jiang Ning decided Yu Manyun would not be spared.

• Jiang Ning drew the power of heaven and earth into his bone marrow with his saber-intent and completed his first marrow-washing.
• Xiao Emei questioned Yu Manyun about using Jiang Ning's family as leverage, and Yu Manyun admitted she planned to abduct Jiang Yiming or Jiang Yuanyuan to lure Jiang Ning to the Water-Moon Sword Palace.
• Xiao Emei sent Jiang Ning a letter warning him of Yu Manyun's plan, and he resolved to kill Yu Manyun for threatening his family.
• Jiang Ning spent the afternoon refining his marrow six or seven times and entered the fourth-rank marrow-refinement stage.
• Jiang Ning saw the new Fourth-Rank Marrow Refinement entry on his panel and changed Water Manipulation Art into Water-Controlling Divine Ability (First-Break).

Jiang Ning discovered that he needed 1,999 marrow cleansings to complete his Fourth Grade realm, then used Five Animals Fist intent to accelerate his cultivation. As Yu Manyun reached his residence to abduct Little Doubao, Xiao Emei stayed outside while Jiang Ning continued cultivating inside.

• Jiang Ning calculated that he needed 1,999 marrow cleansings and estimated he could complete the realm in about three months.
• Jiang Ning practiced Five Animals Fist, manifested a fiery tiger with third-level intent, and completed another marrow cleansing.
• Bai Luoyu saw the phenomenon from afar and resolved to seek a Thunderclap Fruit at the Myriad Treasures Pavilion auction to advance his own cultivation.
• Yu Manyun and Xiao Emei approached Jiang Ning's home, where Yu Manyun planned to take Little Doubao while he cultivated.
• Xiao Emei declined to enter the courtyard, and Yu Manyun vaulted over the wall alone.

Yu Manyun infiltrated Jiang Ning’s estate to attack his family, but Jiang Ning revealed he had reached the fourth rank and killed her. Xiao Emei accepted his reward, took Yu Manyun’s body, and chose not to betray her master, while Jiang Ning let her decide whether to share information about Xiao Qiushui.

• Yu Manyun entered Jiang Ning’s estate while Xiao Emei stayed outside after receiving Jiang Ning’s warning.
• Yu Manyun found Liu Wanwan and Little Doubao, but Jiang Ning arrived shrouded in divine radiance and revealed he had reached the fourth rank.
• Yu Manyun tried to attack Liu Wanwan and the others, but Jiang Ning restrained and killed her with gang qi.
• Jiang Ning took Yu Manyun’s body away and asked Jiang Li to clean the courtyard so Little Doubao would not be frightened.
• Xiao Emei came to Jiang Ning, received two drops of his blood, and refined them to strengthen her body.
• Xiao Emei asked to take Yu Manyun’s body and admitted she could not betray Xiao Qiushui; Jiang Ning agreed and told her to choose whether to report Xiao Qiushui’s movements.

Jiang Ning spent Source Energy to advance his Wood-Chopping Saber Technique, awakening extraordinary Innate Saber Bones and strengthening his saber intent, then continued cultivating the Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique. The Qinghe Count decided not to pursue Jiang Ning, while Bai Luoyu realized Jiang Ning had mastered the technique to great accomplishment.

• Jiang Ning spent one thousand Source Energy to break the Wood-Chopping Saber Technique's limits for the seventh time and gained his first break of Innate Saber Bones, which gave him an extra bone and saber intent.
• Jiang Ning spent another two thousand Source Energy to advance the technique to its eighth limit break, awakening a precious art within his saber bones that released a dangerous killing aura before he suppressed it.
• Jiang Ning tested his stronger saber intent and looked forward to facing Xiao Qiushui.
• The Qinghe Count refused He Jinsheng's request to pursue Jiang Ning, deciding Qinghe Earl's Estate could not afford a conflict and would treat Jin Yun's death as though nothing had happened.
• Jiang Ning absorbed the sun's essence at noon, and Bai Luoyu recognized that Jiang Ning's Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique had reached great accomplishment.

Jiang Ning visited Medicine King Valley, gave Wang Jin precious pills, and told him he had avenged him by killing the woman who attacked him. That night, Jiang Ning revealed third-level fist intent and reached Marrow Refinement Divine Radiance, then planned to break through Water-Fire True Force to improve his cultivation speed.

• Jiang Ning arrived at Medicine King Valley, reunited with Wang Jin, and gave him Foundation-Consolidating Origin-Nourishing Pills to aid his recovery.
• Lu Qingshan appraised the pills and said they could help Wang Jin recover and potentially advance his martial path.
• Jiang Ning told Wang Jin that he had killed the woman who had attacked him, avenging his master.
• While Jiang Ning practiced in the courtyard, Lu Qingshan and Elder Huang recognized his third-level fist intent and witnessed him reach Marrow Refinement Divine Radiance.
• Jiang Ning reviewed his slow marrow-refinement progress and decided to break through Water-Fire True Force in hopes of grasping Water-Fire Momentum and improving his efficiency.

Jiang Ning cultivated Water-Fire True Force until he broke through and comprehended the Water-Fire Millstone momentum, gaining the Stone Boiling divine ability. He began training to strengthen the art further, while his attempts to test the force left Linglong and Old Softshell unconscious.

• Jiang Ning improved Water-Fire True Force more efficiently and decided to cultivate it in an environment where water and fire converged.
• After returning to Dongling City, Jiang Ning met Liu Sansheng and Liu Wanwan's mother at his residence.
• Jiang Ning used 500 source energy points to break Water-Fire True Force through to its third limit and comprehended the first level of Water-Fire Millstone momentum.
• Jiang Ning discovered that his new Stone Boiling divine ability let him control flames and transform them into lifelike shapes.
• Jiang Ning's Water-Fire Millstone Force knocked Linglong and Old Softshell unconscious when he tried to test it on them.
• Jiang Ning resumed cultivating by the lake as Lü Yi and Linglong watched the force of his momentum with awe and fear.

Jiang Ning cultivated Water-Fire True Force through its fourth limit break and gained the Water-Fire Harmony trait, which let him fuse true essence with vital blood. The chapter left him discovering that his whole body could now store and release true essence, while Jiang Yiming headed to the Martial Academy entrance assessment.

• Liu Wanwan reminded Jiang Yiming to remember Jiang Ning's kindness, and Jiang Yiming assured her he could pass the Martial Academy assessment.
• Jiang Yiming visited Jiang Ning, leaped across the lake, and demonstrated strength that satisfied his uncle; Jiang Ning told him to register while he continued cultivating.
• Jiang Ning completed Water-Fire True Force's fourth limit break, spending one thousand source energy and gaining the Water-Fire Harmony trait.
• Jiang Ning realized Water-Fire Harmony might unite true essence and vital blood, then tested the idea and successfully fused them throughout his body.
• Jiang Ning discovered that the fusion let his whole body hold true essence and release it from any point, beyond the dantian's capacity and without relying on his meridians.

Jiang Yiming’s enrollment at the Martial Academy was targeted by a Young Count’s scheme, but he exposed the setup and drew the academy’s attention by revealing his strength. The chapter left him striking back to force influential figures to recognize his talent, while Jiang Ning watched without intervening.

• Jiang Ning tested Water-Fire Millstone Force after discovering that Water-Fire Harmony let his true essence and vital blood reinforce each other.
• Jiang Yiming arrived at the Martial Academy with his family and joined the enrollment queue, where a brawny youth shoved ahead of him to provoke a fight.
• The youth attacked Jiang Yiming, then a Martial Academy student broke the youth’s shin and tried to blame Jiang Yiming, while Jiang Ning watched from nearby.
• Jiang Yiming accused the student of conspiring to disqualify him and declared that the plot would not succeed.
• Jiang Yiming unleashed his blood and qi and swung a powerful strike to display his talent and win the attention of the Martial Academy’s leaders.

Jiang Yiming defeated a Martial Academy student in three hammer-like punches, drawing Instructor Xu Nianqing’s interest. Jiang Ning arrived with Bai Luoyu, revealed his status as a candidate inspector, and asked Bai Luoyu to investigate whoever had targeted his family.

• Jiang Yiming defeated the Martial Academy student with three powerful strikes, while Xu Nianqing ordered Wang Qingtan to investigate Jiang Yiming and the threat against the Academy.
• Wang Qingtan checked Jiang Yiming’s household registration and questioned how a fifteen-year-old constable’s son had entered the ranks of Martial Dao.
• Jiang Ning and Bai Luoyu arrived, and Wang Qingtan greeted Bai Luoyu as Inspector Bai while Jiang Yiming called Jiang Ning his uncle.
• Bai Luoyu introduced Jiang Ning as a former Inspection Office commander and candidate inspector, and Jiang Ning asked him to investigate the attack on his family.
• Xu Nianqing greeted Bai Luoyu and recognized that Jiang Ning had reached the fourth rank, though she had never heard of him.

Xu Nianqing accepted Jiang Yiming as her disciple after learning of his extraordinary talent, while Jiang Ning arranged for the people behind the scheme against him to be detained. Jiang Ning then entered the Martial Academy for further study, where Wang Qingtan was assigned to guide him.

• Jiang Ning confirmed Jiang Yiming was fifteen, and Jiang Li agreed to Xu Nianqing taking him as her disciple.
• Xu Nianqing exposed the injured Martial Academy student's role in the scheme, while Jiang Ning caught Liu Boming and the effeminate youth as likely masterminds.
• Bai Luoyu agreed to detain the suspects until after the imperial examinations, and knocked out the Qinghe Earl's Estate youth when he protested.
• Jiang Ning used his passage token to begin further study at the Martial Academy, and Xu Nianqing assigned Wang Qingtan to receive him.

Jiang Ning toured the Martial Academy with Wang Qingtan and Wang Qinghan, learning about its facilities and affordable pills while considering how to build up Source Energy. A touch of Wang Qingtan’s hand revealed that she possessed a divine point and fragmentary Lord of Ten Thousand Fires authority, leaving Jiang Ning to realize she was a divine maiden.

• Wang Qinghan reminded Jiang Ning that she had once seen him jump into a river and had tried to save him, while Wang Qingtan denied that she would have done the same.
• Wang Qingtan showed Jiang Ning the Earth-Vein Chamber, but he declined to use it because it would not help him much at present.
• At the Pill Tower, Jiang Ning examined the academy’s discounted pills and considered saving his credits for pills that could provide Source Energy.
• Wang Qingtan offered Jiang Ning a loan at nine out, eleven back, and Jiang Ning remarked that she was generous compared with the academy’s usual terms.
• When Jiang Ning took the pill booklet from Wang Qingtan, their fingers touched and his panel detected an owned divine point and fragmentary Lord of Ten Thousand Fires authority.
• Jiang Ning concluded that Wang Qingtan was unlike the divine beings he had encountered before and recognized her as a living divine maiden.

Jiang Ning toured the Martial Academy with Wang Qingtan and learned about the Martial Refinement Tower, hoping to earn credits there. As Lin He challenged the ninth floor and Wang Qingtan clashed with Yan Youhu, Liu Sansheng unexpectedly greeted Jiang Ning.

• Wang Qingtan showed Jiang Ning the academy and its Divine Weapon Tower, but he found no bow suited to his strength.
• Wang Qinghan mentioned that her family owned their father's old battlefield bow, while Wang Qingtan explained the Martial Refinement Tower's rewards and admission qualifications.
• Jiang Ning decided to challenge the tower, but Lin He was already attempting the ninth floor, so they waited with the gathered students.
• Wang Qingtan said Lin He had once been stronger than her and dismissed Yan Youhu's taunts about her confidence.
• Liu Sansheng arrived and called out to Jiang Ning.

Liu Sansheng greeted Jiang Ning at the Martial Refinement Tower, where Lin He emerged bloodied after failing to clear its ninth floor. Jiang Ning entered the tower to begin his own challenge, while Liu Sansheng’s account of Jiang Ning’s age and achievements left Wang Qingtan doubting her earlier assessment of his strength.

• Liu Sansheng approached Jiang Ning and offered to show him around, while Yan Youhu wondered why Liu Sansheng treated Jiang Ning with such deference.
• Jiang Ning waited for Lin He to finish challenging the ninth floor, then learned that entering the tower would cost ten academic credits.
• Lin He emerged wounded and admitted to Wang Qingtan that he had failed again before leaving the tower.
• Jiang Ning entered the Martial Refinement Tower with a crimson token and sensed a strange fluctuation that resembled, but differed from, his spiritual force field.
• Wang Qingtan asked Liu Sansheng about Jiang Ning, and Liu Sansheng said Jiang Ning was near her age and had defended a city from the Black Mountain Rebels.
• Wang Qingtan reconsidered her belief that Jiang Ning’s signs of marrow refinement meant he was much older, and wondered whether she had misjudged his strength.

Jiang Ning cleared all nine floors of the Martial Refinement Tower, earning merit points and large amounts of qi and blood before emerging at the summit. Wang Qingtan entered the tower to attempt the challenge, while Jiang Ning waited outside with Wang Qinghan.

• Jiang Ning defeated the trial opponents on the first eight floors, absorbing their qi and blood and accumulating merit points as he climbed.
• Onlookers identified Jiang Ning as a former deputy commander from Luoshui County, and Yan Youhu described his rise and his conflict with Yan Youhu's father.
• Jiang Ning defeated the ninth-floor opponent, reached the summit, and left the tower with 330 merit points.
• Wang Qingtan entered the Martial Refinement Tower to challenge its ninth floor, while Wang Qinghan asked Jiang Ning whether her sister would succeed.
• Jiang Ning reassured Wang Qinghan by patting her head, then realized she had no unusual qualities like her sister.

Wang Qingtan cleared the ninth floor of the Martial Refinement Tower with ease, then led Jiang Ning to the Library Pavilion, where she agreed to lend him credits at a steep interest rate. After Jiang Ning finished his midday cultivation, the group reached the pavilion, which held martial arts and seven superior techniques.

• Wang Qingtan emerged from the tower after clearing its ninth floor, while Lin He left feeling inferior and Yan Youhu followed him.
• Wang Qingtan offered Jiang Ning a loan, and they agreed that she would lend him one thousand credits at nine out, eleven back.
• Jiang Ning cultivated on a sun-warmed boulder while Wang Qingtan and Wang Qinghan waited; Wang Qingtan cooked a golden pheasant for her hungry sister.
• Jiang Ning finished cultivating, accepted a chicken leg from Wang Qinghan, and went with the sisters to the Library Pavilion.
• Jiang Ning and the sisters arrived at the Library Pavilion, whose upper floors held ranked martial arts and seven superior techniques.

Jiang Ning visited the Library Pavilion with Wang Qingtan, borrowed 1,000 academy credits from her, and discovered that reading its Martial Dao techniques increased his Literacy experience four times faster. After spending about an hour and a half on the second floor, he decided to see what the third floor offered.

• Wang Qingtan showed Jiang Ning the Library Pavilion, and Jiang Ning noticed a damaged Lord of Ten Thousand Fires authority and divinity points bound to her.
• Wang Qingtan lent Jiang Ning 1,000 academy credits after he signed an IOU, raising his balance from 330 to 1,330 credits.
• Jiang Ning paid one credit to enter the second floor and read several low-grade Martial Dao techniques, increasing his Literacy experience from 3,923 to 4,137.
• Jiang Ning realized that reading on the second floor gained Literacy experience at roughly four times his usual rate and decided to visit the third floor.

Jiang Ning browsed the superior martial art Wind-Thunder Steps in the Library Tower and achieved entry-level mastery by drawing on his experience with Wind-Thunder Archery. After spending the evening reading martial-art fragments, he left with Literacy close to its next limit break and discovered that Wind-Thunder Steps had already gained experience, leaving him eager to test its growth.

• Jiang Ning spent fifty credit points to browse Wind-Thunder Steps and studied its principles of wind and thunder.
• Jiang Ning comprehended Wind-Thunder Steps to entry-level mastery, but the tower keeper warned him not to practice inside the Library Tower.
• Jiang Ning browsed fragments of mid-grade martial arts, raising his Literacy experience to 6077/7000 before the tower keeper sent him out at night.
• Jiang Ning realized he had missed the Pill Tower and lacked enough Source Energy for Literacy's next limit break.
• Jiang Ning noticed Wind-Thunder Steps had gained fourteen experience points and grew excited about how efficiently he might improve it.

Jiang Ning practiced Wind-Thunder Steps until he reached Minor Accomplishment, then spent his Martial Academy credits on Embracing-Embryo One-Qi Pills. Wang Qingtan saw his rapid progress and became convinced that he was no ordinary person, while Jiang Ning left to continue cultivating.

• Jiang Ning gained Wind-Thunder Steps experience on his way to the closed Pill Tower and returned home, where Lü Yi welcomed him and his family shared a late meal.
• Jiang Yiming told Jiang Ning that Xu Nianqing had accepted him as her disciple, and Jiang Ning urged him to call Bai Luoyu Uncle for protection.
• Jiang Ning trained Water-Fire True Force in his courtyard, then walked to the Martial Academy the next morning and advanced Wind-Thunder Steps to Minor Accomplishment.
• Jiang Ning exchanged his remaining credits for fourteen bottles of Embracing-Embryo One-Qi Pills at the Pill Tower.
• Wang Qingtan and Wang Qinghan encountered Jiang Ning, and Wang Qingtan recognized his Wind-Thunder Steps and concluded that he shared her unusual nature.

Jiang Ning refined Embracing-Embryo One-Qi Pills in a gravity chamber, read every incomplete mid-tier martial art on the Library Pavilion's third floor, and accumulated over sixteen thousand Source Energy points. He used one thousand points to advance Literacy to its seventh limit break, gaining a first-break Heavenly Eye and greatly extending his mental force field.

• Jiang Ning used the quiet room's maximum gravity to refine ten Embracing-Embryo One-Qi Pills, then left with his inner strength increased.
• Jiang Ning read every incomplete mid-tier martial art on the Library Pavilion's third floor, raising Literacy to its experience cap and improving Wind-Thunder Steps.
• Jiang Ning returned to his residence, where Lü Yi greeted him and served his dinner.
• Jiang Ning saw that his Source Energy had reached 16,146 points and spent one thousand to advance Literacy to its seventh limit break.
• Jiang Ning gained a first-break Heavenly Eye, tested its vision, and found that his mental force field now reached one li in every direction.